Yesterday it was my turn to lead the monthly festival ceremony. We celebrated the life and teaching of Dogen, and then afterwards I gave a talk to the gathered community and visting guests. Now it’s time to pack up the very many books I’ve been reading of Zen Master Dogens writings, and the commentaries on his writings, and file away my own voluminous notes on Dogen.

Over the last month I’ve gained a greater appreciation of our first Japanese Ancestor and his particular contribution to Buddhist thought and practice. In the statement the celebrant makes at the time of offering incense at the beginning of the ceremony I used the word stupendous to describe Dogen. While I do not find myself adequately equipped to wax lyrical, or write in detail about his teaching I can at least stand and cheer. He was stupendous, awesome in fact. That, however, is all to no avail if we were not to put his teaching into practice. That would make for a hollow cheer would it not? Here is the blessing verse:

This ceremony is offered in memory of the Great Priest, Eihei Dogen. First Japanese Ancestor and a stupendous figure in our Dharma Family.

“Time flies quicker than an arrow and life passes with greater transience than dew. The life of this one day, to-day, is absolutely vital life.”

Let us daily express gratitude. Let us keep alive the Smile of Shakyamuni Buddha as well as the Smile of all the Buddhas and Ancestors of present, past and future.
Blessing statement for Dogen Day, 2007.

The table where I studied while in Wales on retreat in May.

This poem is from The Sounds of Valleys and the Forms of Mountains, a chapter of the Shobogenzo by Zen Master Dogen. The poem speaks of how nature ‘speaks’ when we are full ready to hear. This is possible because of the Buddhist teaching of the fundamental non separation of ear and sound, mind and matter.

It dawned on me why I was so caught up in the film about the Giant Hornets and the honey bees the other day. I remembered a short poem I’d written early in life which started, Bee and me we are One! Well, it was a start! I had no religious context through which to understand the sense of unity I experienced while watching a bumble bee one idle summers day. The impression however was a lasting one.

It’s not unusual for people to speak of a profound sense of unity they felt with existence while out in the wilds, or elsewhere. Very often people spend their lives trying to find an explanation for such experiences. Some take up a formal religious practice and realise a window onto the way things are opened briefly. They can then let go and move on.

It’s always cheering to see that another person is attempting to establish a regular meditation practice. Just sitting may be simple however it is not easy. And especially not easy to keep up a practice alone.

Well done, keep going.

It’s amazing how the heart sings when you’ve done something right!

Ever since I’ve been back here at Throssel my brown hat has been lost and found many times. Other people have walked off with it, I’ve walked off with similar looking hats only to find it belongs to somebody else. If a hat goes missing I seem to be first on the list to check with. Did you take my hat by mistake Rev. Mugo? I’ve got a bit of a reputation for walking off in other peoples coats too, they all look much the same in the gloom of the evening cloister after meditation.

Sometimes I’ve wondered if the hat I have now is really ‘mine’, but that has all changed. On Tuesday, while fending off a cold, I occupied myself sewing in name labels. My brown hat was top of the list. All those items I least want to loose track of, socks for example, are now labeled as well. Now I can reast easy knowing my hat will return to me, eventually. Why, only this very morning it went walk-about and returned in under eight hours. It’s a record!

So, when my hat went missing I broke out into silent song:
I’ve not-got that sinkin’ feelin’, now you’ve gone, gone, gone! But looking up the song I thought I was alluding to I find the lyrics are not even close. Ah well…

I’m reminded of a birthday card my dad once sent me of Wallace, of Wallace and Gromit, in the wrong trousers. Wallace had such a look of dismay on his face and I guess my dad empathized. Perhaps he’d put on the wrong trousers at some point in his life.

Once a week we watch TV on our ‘renewal’ night, this is our community recreation. Last night we watched a film about the Giant Hornets which wreck havoc in Japan by decimating the domestic European honey bee population. The female workers, loyal to their Queen, feed the growing larvae and for that they need ‘meat’. So the workers go and raid hives for their larvae then feed them to the ever growing population of avaricious hornet larvae.

The local bee keepers destroy Hornets nests. In the film a Buddhist monk, who harvests honey each year by attracting wild honey bees to his hives, does not do this. Interestingly enough the wild bees were better adapted to protecting their hives than the European ones. They simply smother the scouting Hornet by swarming all over it and flap their wings to raise the temperature. Hornets can’t take the extra heat and are thus effectively cooked to death.

One of the monks remarked how interesting it was to watch ones mind while watching the hornets wrecking havoc killing the honey bees and the general death and destruction depicted in the film. With my renewed audio awareness what I was noticing were the sounds. You could hear the munching and crunching and buzzing. I was wondering how on earth the film crew managed to catch the sounds, or were they sound effects…

I’m not sure why in particular these hornets, and the film, grabbed my attention. I do however now remember that the monk in the film had been attacked by a swarm of the Giant Hornets as a child and survived. Now each year he seems to seek out the all important Queen who, early in the season, feeds on tree sap and is easy to spot. He could have been afraid of them, he could at least keep his distance but actually he appears to loves them as he loves the wild honey bees too.

Interesting the choices we can make in life, and how choices in the natural world are few.